Happy Days Quilting

Sunday, 26 June 2011

I have had some new additions to my sewing/dining room, I had a new red chair and extra large cutting mat for my birthday and some neat stuff from a trip to IKEA today.

This is my sewing area

My new red metal drawers

My new mini light

I often struggle to have enough light when I'm sewing, so this mini spotlight will be ideal.

A new red laptop table

I bought this little table for when I am sewing large quilts, to help support the weight of them.

Where I store my knee lift and foot pedal

My cutting table

My fabric cupboard

Ruler and applique bag

I don't have my own sewing room just one wall of our dining room so I try to make the best use of space I can, my design wall is on the darkest side of the room but on the largest free wall, so I often struggle to take true colour photo's.

The only thing missing is this quilt that still needs its hanging sleeves, but I hope to hang it above my sewing machine some time next week.

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

My sewing machine is sitting pretty under its new quilt, It was supposed to be a proper boxed cover but I got the size wrong!

My new poppy quilt has the sashing sewn on, but then I went into a panic because I thought the brown overpowered it ,even thou I want it to look like fencing.
I have made up one poppy to see how its looks and they are so big and there are eleven of them it should work out as they cover a lot of the quilt anyway, so I am carrying on with it.

The poppy needs its black and yellow centre added

This should be a quick quilt to make as you do the applique the same time as you quilt it.

Monday, 20 June 2011

Its make a lovely change to be doing some piecing and to have a quilt up on my design wall, the blocks themselves are sewn together and I'm now in the process of sewing on the sashing.
The quilt looks darker up on the wall than it is in real life and the sashings will shrink to 1 inch and not be so over powering when it all pieced together.
Once the borders are attached, I will be fusing on the poppies and it will look a lot more colourful.

Thanks for stopping by, this post is linked to Patchwork Times,pop over and see what everyone else is up to.

Sunday, 19 June 2011

There are several parts of the quilt making process that I have struggled to master and putting on the binding has always been one of them, even down to joining the strips has had me pulling out my hair and reaching for the seam ripper, so when I discovered the binding tool and this helpful video on how to use it, I ordered it immediately!
I have used it twice now, the first time was not the success that I hoped it would be, but put it down to my own inaccuracy, so when I was putting the binding on my sewing machine cover I thought I would take photo's of the process to help me identify any errors on my part.

First step is to measure and mark a space of 12 inches

Sew around the binding leaving the 12 inch gap open, you need enough length of binding to have 10 inches left on either side

Lay the tool on the marked line and the draw a line on the binding

Lay the binding on a cutting mat, match the tool to the marked line and cut

Rotate the tool and again mark the binding

This time the edge of the tool is where you line up the marked line and then cut

Pin the two edges together and then sew

This is where it went wrong, on the tool guide its says to cut away the points, so when you sew them together they are easy to match up, but when I did that it came out wonky!

When I re sewed it judging it by eye it worked out much better and layed lovely and flat

I definitely like this tool and will continue to use it, next time I won't cut off the points to see if it works better.

I have also pulled off the blue backing, I didn't realise it had one, I thought it was made of blue plastic (Duh) its now much easier to see the marked lines!

Friday, 17 June 2011

I have finally decided what my next quilt is going to be after lots of deliberations (so many quilts to choose from, doesn't make deciding very easy right!), anyway its from this yummy book I bought recently at a quilt show.

The quilt is the one on the cover, but the background will be blues and then brown for the sashing, which will hopefully then look like a wooden fence behind the poppies.

The applique on the quilt is fusible raw edge, which I've had major issues with on my sewing machine cover, as I can't stand it when it frays, so I have got a new fusible web to try, its called heat n bond and I'm hoping that it won't fray at all.
The fabrics are all lovely batiks, I'm using light blues for the background blocks instead of the yellow and then the rest are for the borders and binding

Greens for the stalks and leaves and the brown for the mock fencing

I have prewashed all the fabrics ready, I would have started this quilt a few weeks earlier but I hate prewashing and kept trying to convince myself not to bother, just as well thou that I did as the brown especially ran quite a bit.
So tomorrow is the big day, I'm hoping to cut out the blocks and start piecing.

I have the binding to put on my sewing machine cover first thou, good job its a Friday Night Sew in right!